TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Monday, June 17, the 168th day of 2013. There are 197 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On June 17, 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Abington (Pa.) School District v. Schempp, struck down, 8-1, rules requiring the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer or reading of biblical verses in public schools.

On this date:

In 1397, the Treaty of Kalmar was signed, creating a union between the kingdoms of Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

In 1775, the Revolutionary War Battle of Bunker Hill resulted in a costly victory for the British, who suffered heavy losses.

In 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor aboard the French ship Isere.

In 1928, Amelia Earhart embarked on a trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland to Wales with pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon, becoming the first woman to make the trip as a passenger.

In 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which boosted U.S. tariffs to historically high levels, prompting foreign retaliation.

In 1933, the “Kansas City Massacre” took place outside Union Station in Kansas City, Mo., as a group of gunmen attacked law enforcement officers escorting federal prisoner Frank Nash; four of the officers were killed, along with Nash.

In 1940, France asked Germany for terms of surrender in World War II.

In 1953, residents of East Berlin rebelled against the communist East German government, which forcefully suppressed the uprising. U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas stayed the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, originally set for the next day, the couple’s 14th wedding anniversary. (They were put to death June 19.)

In 1961, Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defected to the West while his troupe was in Paris.

In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon’s eventual downfall began with the arrest of five burglars inside Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.

In 1987, Charles Glass, a journalist on leave from ABC News, was kidnapped in Lebanon. (Glass escaped his captors in August 1987.)

In 1992, President George H.W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a breakthrough arms-reduction agreement.

Ten years ago: A federal appeals court ruled the government properly withheld names and other details about hundreds of foreigners who were detained in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks. The Justice Department issued a directive banning routine racial and ethnic profiling at all 70 federal agencies with law enforcement powers. English soccer star David Beckham was sold to Real Madrid by Manchester United for a $41 million transfer fee.

One year ago: Rodney King, 47, whose 1991 videotaped beating by Los Angeles police sparked widespread outrage and who struggled with addiction and repeated arrests, died in Rialto, Calif., in an apparent drowning.

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico (AP) — Heavy weekend rains have caused severe flooding in the Mexican city of Piedras Negras on the border with Texas. Coahuila state officials say one person died and 10,000 houses are damaged, leaving 40,000 peoples homeless.

State government secretary Armando Luna Canales said Sunday that one of the hardest hit zones was the city center, where many bu